On the Tablet of My Heart

"I'm mad. I'm mad at God...It's not fair." I'm a fixer.  I like to have an answer for every question, a solution for every problem, a cure for every hurt. So when I found my friend's text message after work today, I immediately started racking my brain for the perfect answer. She knew I would; she's put up with me long enough.  I've also known her long enough. Long enough to know exactly which hurts she was referring to. Long enough to know that she doesn't necessarily expect an answer - she just needs me to listen. So, after reminding myself of that fact, I stopped texting in the middle of my reply and put down the phone. To be honest, I didn't have a good response anyways. Do any of us, really?  Who hasn't wondered where God was in the middle of a crisis?  Who hasn't questioned if He's even heard our prayer or seen our heartache? Which of us hasn't screamed, "God, this isn't fair!" if not out loud, at

Surface Searching at Crater of Diamonds - March 24, 2017 Yesterday my family visited the Crater of  Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas. Dozens of families and hopeful individuals paid an entrance fee to search for diamonds in the plowed field of the world's 8th largest diamond-bearing volcanic crater. My own family spent at least three hours surface searching and wet mining, and eleven hours driving (round trip) in order to be able to do so. It was an exciting experience, knowing that there was a possibility (though slim) that we might be able to find a treasure in this field. At the very least, we were in the right area, a location proven to be full of one of the world's rarest jewels, and they were free for the taking if one only found the right place to look and examined the soil closely enough! We sifted through piles of dirt inspecting each handful more closely than one might search for a needle in a hay stack.  But in the end, we walked away with